Manchester's Quay Bar falls from Stirling glory to demolition

Stephenson Bell’s Quay Bar in Castlefield, Manchester, has been demolished, less than nine years after being shortlisted for the Stirling Prize.

In September the AJ revealed that the bar had been earmarked for demolition to make way fora 15-storey residential project by Ian Simpson (AJ 06.09.07).

Roger Stephenson said: 'It was a sometimes heart-wrenching up-hill struggle to convince the client (a pub-owning brewer from the Midlands) to allow us to take the design intentions through to completion.

'It was a radical contemporary proposition in the middle of a very significant conservation area.

‘The battle to deliver the building took a few years off my life, and it was the only bar to ever reach the Stirling Prize shortlist, so it’s doubly upsetting to see it ripped apart.'

Completed in 1998, the bar won a hatful of awards, but closed in 2005.

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